Excellence in Professional Service

Each year, the University at Albany honors special members of its community with Excellence Awards denoting exceptional contributions to the life of the campus. Four staff members received this tribute in 2009 for Excellence in Professional Service.

Corinna Ripps Schaming, Art Museum

Ms. Corinna Ripps Schaming is also an alumna of UAlbany. She began her professional career here in 1979, as a part–time technician with what was then called the University Art Gallery. Following a break in service from 1984 to 1994, she returned to the University as a part–time Assistant to the Director of the University Art Museum. She was promoted to Associate Director and Curator in 2002. Ms. Schaming has oversight of museum exhibitions, publications, communications, special events and public programming. These are core museum functions, central to the museum's standing in the field, and important contributions to the university's educational program and value as a regional cultural resource. Ms. Schaming's efforts have been instrumental, particularly in recent years, in attracting artists of international reputation to the campus and in increasing national visibility for the Museum's exhibition program. She initially developed the very popular Art and Culture Talks or ACT Program, which brings high caliber visiting artists, critics, writers, and scholars to the University. Her efforts were recognized this past year in the award of a substantial grant, the largest in the museum's history, from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; this support will help to sustain a vibrant program focused on contemporary art over the next several years. We are pleased to celebrate these outstanding accomplishments by presenting Ms. Corinna Ripps Schaming with the 2009 President's Award for Excellence in Professional Service.